Demon City

Story: Shuhei Sakata (Toma Ikuta) is a professional killer who takes out an entire gang of gangsters for his employer. After that, he wants to retire and live a quiet life with his wife and young daughter. However, the rising gangster boss Ryu Sunohara (Matsuya Onoe) has other plans. He wants to take over the city with his friends and Sakata is the only one who stands in his way, as he believes him to be the demon of a local legend who appears every 50 years. So, along with his friends he visits him and kills his wife and daughter in front of him. Sakata is shot in the head, but he survives. From then on, he is paralyzed, unaware of his surroundings, and lives in a nursing home. When he is picked up by his former partner after twelve years, he gets injured during an attack, and ends up in the hospital again, therefore attracting the attention of Sunohara. He is now the mayor of the city and has turned it into a paradise for businessmen and tourists through all kinds of illegal business practices. When one of his men shows up at the hospital and wants to kill Sakata, the ex-killer wakes up from his comatose state. The Noh mask, which his attacker wears, brings back his memories. Since all the intruders wore masks twelve years ago, Sakata doesn't know their identity, but he has the chance to get his revenge anyway...

Review: Nowadays, the almost unmanageable number of revenge thrillers or action movies in which a killer slaughters his way through all those who have even the slightest connection to the murder of his loved ones makes it necessary for yet another genre entry to have some sort of special features in order to be noticed at all. For instance, simply being a quieter representative of the genre might suffice, but as "A Man of Reason" proves, this does not always work either. Expectations for "Demon City" were comparatively high, because a dark and bloody action flick from Japan that doesn't make any compromises should at least satisfy fans of the genre. Unfortunately, the movie is not able to deliver. Apart from a few exceptions, the action is rather standard. The story itself is, of course, not that noteworthy, but there is an aspect with the "Oni" and the matching masks that could have given the movie a supernatural touch. However, this aspect is simply neglected after all, thus taking away the action flick's last chance for originality.

Of course, you have to put logic on the back burner with stories like these. It starts with a headshot, which the protagonist survives (ok, still possible), continues with the sudden awakening from a vegetative state and the lightning-fast regeneration of all muscles, which should have completely atrophied over the years, and ends with one of the villains who, for a vile reason, raises a girl for years and becomes her father. All this doesn't fit together, and it always seems as if the script simply needed these things to somehow push the story forward. It's the worst when it comes to the protagonist. He can take more punches, stabs and bullets than all the action heroes of the 80s combined, but instead of leaning into this nonsense and portraying Sakata as an angel of death who has gained the power of a demon - since he is supposed to be just that in the eyes of the villains! - nothing noteworthy is done with it. Otherwise, the story could have at least become an homage to "The Crow". In the end, however, you have to ask yourself why there are all the demon masks in the movie, and why some scenes are even a bit unsettling like in a horror movie.

The story is based on the manga "Oni Goroshi" by Masamichi Kawabe. That information makes it easier to understand some scenes, e.g. the masks, which the gang wear almost the entire time, and the amount of blood, which unfortunately often splashes across the screen in the form of CGI, as well as the hero's unusual weapon. But we don't get a truly cool hero here. Sakata is simply out for revenge, and we never get to see any other level of personality. Not even in the scenes with his daughter do we get to see more than just a man who loved his family. Toma Ikuta ("Brain Man") is not able to change anything about that either. Only in the action scenes is he really allowed to show what he's got. That's at least something, but the action itself is also rather disappointing. There are enough moments in which you think you can really feel the punches and cuts, but the fights themselves mostly come across as barely being choreographed at all. Especially the finale, even if it is quite stylish and has a few good scenes, should have gotten more out of its showdown potential. You constantly think that you've already seen all of this before and done a lot better too.

Since the drama and suffering that plagues the protagonist was never presented to us in a believable way, we don't really care about what happens to Sakata. And if there finally is a scene that wants to flesh out a character in some way, then it feels extremely clumsy. Why does it take until the finale to show us the villain's brother along with a flashback? Just to make the epilogue work? No matter, the fact remains that it is implemented heavy-handedly and offers no added value. Maybe there was even a specific idea behind certain scenes, but it generally doesn't come across. With "Melancholic" director Seiji Tanaka already told a story about a killer, but in a much more relaxed way and also with a lot more atmosphere. It is difficult to figure out what exactly the color or tone of "Demon City" is supposed to be. Seemingly, a little bit of everything, but in the end, nothing at all. Just like the action: some shootouts, mainly stabbing, a few punches - but nothing that would be held together by a guiding thread like a well-done choreography for example.

Nonetheless, there are also a few positive points. The "dirty" guitar sound of the score by Tomoyasu Hotei - best known for his contribution to "Kill Bill" - supports the action nicely. The sound effects also do their part, even though they could also be described as a bit exaggerated. In general, there is nothing wrong with the action, as it is well distributed over the approximately 107 minutes of the movie. But all of this is no longer enough to keep viewers entertained these days. And so, the movie simply fizzles out. Even the sometimes gloomy tone can't save the flick from absolute mediocrity. If you're really looking for an action flick in this hackneyed subgenre, you might want to put it on your watchlist, because at least you won't be absolutely bored. But everyone else can confidently steer clear of this movie. Unfortunately, Netflix therefore continues to cement the impression that the streaming service is unable to produce good action flicks.

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